Intermediate Excel Course

Whew! This week was filled with creation of the final project. I’ve created four learning objectives, learning activities, and their respective authentic assessments for my Intermediate Excel course.

This process taught me a great deal about how an assessment should be tailored with several things in mind.

• What do you want the students to learn?
• What level of Bloom’s taxonomy does it coincide with? Have you included higher level thinking assessments?
• Which learning objective does this assessment measure?
• Which learning activities lead up to and provide practice for the assessment?
• Have you included measures protecting against plagiarism?
• Are you incorporating variety for diverse learners?

My ultimate goal is to have an “active” course in which students complete authentic assessments. I want them to connect their new skills with real-life situations to increase retention and understanding.

Please review my course web site and feel free to leave comments here. It is a work in progress!

https://sites.google.com/site/excelintermediate/

 

Cybercoaching

Cybercoaching…almost sounds like something from Star Trek. That’s probably the response some educators have when confronted with this “new” idea. Just the cyber part alone can be scary. 

In the educational arena, the name defines its purpose. Cyber – using technology – is the tool used to deliver the coaching. Coaching is defined in the readings as, “[looking] for skills to develop rather than errors committed or goals scored.” (Naomi Jeffery Petersen, 2004)

The readings discussed how coaching involves prompt and meaningful feedback designed to build on the strengths of the students so they can meet the learning objectives.

Feedback is the cornerstone of coaching. In sports, if a coach never told his players how they were doing, they would either be lost or would just keep making the same mistakes over and over. In teaching, coaching serves a similar purpose. Our feedback helps students improve their skills and understand which direction to move toward the goal – if it’s prompt and meaningful. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose if it is given after the “big game,” or if it consists of the words “good job.”

It is a continuous struggle for many instructors to keep up with feedback. We spend so much time on preparing courses and instructing, there does not seem enough time for anything else. Perhaps we need to spend less time on instructing and more time on coaching (i.e. feedback).

To improve, don’t we need to know what we are doing wrong and change it? Or can we keep doing what we’re doing correctly, only do it even better and use these strengths to build up other areas? The radical idea of building on the strengths of students does make sense – so why don’t we do it more often? This is one instructor that will be using this method in the future.

And of course, the whole purpose of learning is defined in the learning objectives. All coaching should be designed with these in mind.

I learned many ideas this week that seem so logical, yet sometimes far removed from education. I continue to ask myself, “Why is that?”

Tania Messina

I Meant to Ask You…

We created surveys this week that we could use in our online course. I decided to create a sort of pretest. I teach Excel Intermediate and students are often admitted into the course even though they do not meet the prerequisites. I need to determine if each student has the skills necessary to succeed in an intermediate course. I also ask the students what they want to learn in the course.

I used Survey Monkey to design my survey. You can take my survey by clicking on the link. Click here to take survey

Final Project, so far

Here is what I have created thus far for the final project using Bloom’s Taxonomy. I am teaching an Excel Intermediate course. I am hoping I’m on the right track!

Bloom categories	Learning objective verbs	Learning objective	Activity
Knowledge (recall, list, define, identify, collect, label)	Identify	Students will identify the PMT, PV, and IF functions and their arguments through readings.	Readings from textbook Survey/quiz
Comprehension (summarize, describe, interpret, predict, discuss)	Describe	Students will describe possible uses of the PMT, PV, and IF functions in the business world using research and discussions.	Online readings and research Small group discussions
Application (apply, demonstrate, illustrate, classify, experiment, discover)	Apply	Students will apply the PMT, PV, and IF functions to calculate different loan options for a new loan using Excel.	Teacher demonstration Research interest rates Calculate different loan options in Excel
Analysis (analyze, classify, connect, explain, infer)	Analyze Explain	Students will analyze the different loan options and explain which options might be preferable in different situations.	Small group discussions Group presentations Peer assessment
Synthesis (combine, integrate, plan, create, design, formulate)	Create	Students will create a full amortization schedule using the information in the Loan Options worksheet.	Create a full amortization schedule in Excel
Evaluation (assess, recommend, convince, compare, conclude, summarize)	Recommend	Students will recommend the best loan option for their specific business case study.	Case study reading Small group discussions Group presentations

 

Connecting the Dots

Bloom’s Taxonomy was the subject this week. I was familiar with it, but once again, I have been shown a way to stretch my understanding beyond my comfort zone.

I have written learning objectives using Bloom’s Taxonomy, which I must say, is not easy at first. Now we had to “connect the dots,” or connect Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs to learning objectives to learning activities. It all makes sense when it’s finished and you have a full, authentic learning module that includes multiple learning levels.

Even better, we are experiencing what we want our students to experience. In other words, we are learning and creating in pieces toward a final culmination of this course as we are learning about how to teach in pieces toward a final culmination of a course. Brilliant!

I used the Bloom’s Taxonomy activity to further my progress toward my final project. I have written six learning objectives with related activities. Now I will need to explain which assessment tools I will use for each activity. I have reviewed all of the tools of interest from the midterm projects, so my work is half finished! I really like the way it’s taking shape.

Having students work at the higher learning levels increases deep understanding and reduces plagiarism. As teachers, we need to take the time to plan our courses to include these types of activities.

Here is an interesting way of looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy! Watch Luke Skywalker progress through the stages of learning.

Tania Messina

Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment gives students the experience of being tested the way professionals are actually tested in the work place. As one instructor stated, the real world is not a multiple choice exam with one option being “none of the above.” (Furger, R. San Rafael, CA: George Lucas Foundation,
http://www.edutopia.org/online-education-virtual-classrooms-challenges) Students experience the connection between what they are learning in class with how they will use that knowledge in the real world.

The examples of authentic assessment in the articles and video in this week’s readings were inspiring. To actually see it in use made it even more real. One student’s comment in the video summed up how I feel about authentic assessment, and what this course seems to revolve around. He stated that when you learn from books and tests, you learn knowledge or facts. When you learn how to use those facts in real life, you develop a deeper understanding of the material. That’s pretty insightful for a high school student. So…why is it that instructors and administrators aren’t always that insightful?

Perhaps instructors and administrators believe that the test is the only true way to assess all of the standards. Or maybe they believe “fun projects” are not true learning. We do have to be careful to ensure we are following standards and competencies and not just creating a fun learning activity. I think sometimes instructors can get carried away with creativity, and forget the ultimate goal of learning specific skills and competencies. Students need to learn the facts and knowledge and participate in learning activities practicing their new skills before being assessed. The assessment should allow students to demonstrate what they have learned, and allow them to learn even more during the assessment.

I enjoy using authentic assessment, but I feel I can do more of it. Time, time, time. If I can make some headway every semester, though, I will be satisfied that my students will be developing a deeper understanding of the course material.

 

Our Group Midterm Project

I have not usually been a fan of group projects, but this group and this project worked together extremely well. I love the jigsaw project approach, and have used it once before. I feel it is the best way to assess both individual and group efforts in one project. Our group worked together seamlessly and we even utilized Skype to talk in the planning stages (Albana lives in Italy). Ted has awesome media skills already, and our professional-looking project web site attests to that.

Have a look! There is a feedback page if you would like to comment there, or feel free to comment here or on the Discussion Board for class.

http://elearning.uphero.com/index.html

Tania Messina